A little bit of Southern Alberta!

Early Saturday morning, we left our tiny apartment and headed out to Beaver Mines, Marc's favorite place to camp at. Once our tents were pitched, we ate breakfast and off we went exploring the nearby touristic places. Marc loves his Alberta and so do I. With all that is going on here in this beautiful province, I wanted to explore it, rediscover it, and learn even more about it than just the nasty political goings on happening right now.

We headed out to see the famous Burmis tree! Yes, we actually drove to see a tree. We are awesome that way. First of all, the drive to Beaver Mines was beautiful. The mountains, pine trees, zigzagging roads and occasional wildlife were all so refreshing to watch and so awe inspiring.

I loved reading about the Burmis tree and how it had, for centuries so they say, battled the challenging weather and winds of the area. Despite its effort, it finally succumbed to it all and with the help of iron rods, it once again stands tall for every highway 3 users to catch a glimpse of it while driving by or for "tourist" like us to actually take time to photograph it and read about it. It reminded me so much of how when we hold on to the iron road, we are made strong and can still stand tall despite the trials of our mortal lives.

After our short time looking at the tree, we headed out to Leitch collieries. Now, this was probably my favorite stop on our exploration. My mind went on an overdrive thinking about the people that lived and worked there. How and why the colliery came to be, and so on. We got to talk to a very knowledgeable guide who explained some of the stories, and stopped at every informative displays to learn some more about this place. As with the Burmis tree, the beautifully crafted stones structures remains were stabilized and walking trails established. I recommend visiting this place or at least read about it here . It is a great piece of history. One of the online site I read about the Leitch collieries described it as a 'glorious failure' understandably so when you read its history but nonetheless it was a great learning moment walking through it.

The Powerhouse!

 The Manager's house!

 Remains of the kilns and rail platform.

To end our Alberta exploration, we went to the Lundbreck falls. The boys were so excited about seeing them. Of course I snapped a couple of pictures but I have to say, it was so odd to find waterfalls in the middle of nowhere. They were no Niagara falls but they were still worth the drive. There's a beautiful bridge there that I just loved. We all went under it to look at the falls some more. I love bridges! I really do! After running around, and taking in one of nature's beauty, we got our lunches out and ate peacefully.